bần cùng
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Destitute; abjectly poor: Refers to a state of extreme poverty and deprivation, lacking the most basic necessities for survival.
- Driven to extremity; forced into a corner: Describes a situation where one has no other options or resources left, leading to a desperate last resort.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Họ sống trong cảnh bần cùng. (They live in destitute conditions.)
- Bần cùng lắm nó mới phải đi ăn xin. (Only when driven to absolute extremity did he have to beg.)
- Bần cùng lắm mới phải bỏ một buổi sản xuất. (To miss a work session is a last extremity.)
Advanced Usage
- The word often carries a strong connotation of being at the end of one's rope, combining material poverty with a sense of hopelessness or forced action.
- It can be used to modify nouns describing people ( - destitute person) or conditions ( - destitute circumstances).
Variants and Related Words
- Bần hàn (adj): Impoverished, needy. Often used similarly to but may imply a slightly less extreme degree of poverty.
- Cùng khổ (adj): Miserable, suffering from poverty and hardship.
- Cùng cực (adj/adv): Extreme, at the utmost limit (can refer to poverty or other types of extremity).
Synonyms
- Destitute: Lacking the means of subsistence.
- Abject: Experiencing or showing misery to a maximum degree.
- Impoverished: Reduced to poverty.
- Desperate: Reckless from despair or a sense of having no alternative.
Related Idioms
- Bần cùng sinh đạo tặc: Literally "poverty gives birth to thieves and robbers." Similar to the English proverb "Necessity is the mother of invention," but with a negative connotation, meaning extreme need can drive people to crime.
- Đường cùng: A dead end; a situation with no way out. This phrase relates to the "driven to extremity" meaning of .
- Destitude, abjectly poor
- Driven to extremity
- bần cùng lắm mới phải bỏ một buổi sản xuấtto miss a work session as a last extremity